Kristie Marano earns silver medal at World Championships, equaling U.S. mark with her 9th World medal

BAKU, Azerbaijan - Terry Steiner was in a little better mood Sunday night.

One day after watching three of his wrestlers fail to place, USA Wrestling's National Women's Freestyle Coach saw all three of his wrestlers win medals at the World Championships on Sunday night at the Heydar Aliyev Sport and Exhibition Complex.

American Kristie Marano led the way by finishing with her fifth career silver medal in seven trips to the finals. The two-time World champion ran into a tough finals opponent and dropped a 3-0, 3-0 decision to 2006 World champion Stanka Zlateva of Bulgaria in the gold-medal match at 72 kg/158.5 lbs.

U.S. teammates Sara McMann and Katie Downing each rebounded from losses to World champions to earn bronze medals on Sunday afternoon as the seven-day tournament concluded. The United States finished fifth with 32 points. Japan won the title with 52 points, followed by Kazakhstan and Ukraine with 39 points each, and China with 36.

"I thought we competed better today - no doubt about it," Steiner said. "We definitely came back with some fight, and didn't make everything a tactical, technical match. It doesn't have to be like that because then we think too much. You have to let your work take over and let your reactions take over. We turned it into more battles and just wrestled.

"We had some good wins and won some medals. And we had some losses where we made some mistakes. We can correct those mistakes and we need to keep working. We need to wrestle our style, which is using our conditioning and getting into people's faces."

The U.S. now has qualified for the 2008 Olympics in three of the four Olympic weight classes for women. The top eight finishers at the World Championships in each of the four Olympic classes for women earned a berth to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China. Marano, McMann and Stephanie Murata, who placed fifth at 48 kg/105.5 lbs. on Friday, have now qualified their weight classes for the Olympics. The U.S. still needs to qualify at 55 kg/121 lbs. and will have three more chances to do so in Olympic qualifiers.

The 28-year-old Marano earlier tied a U.S. record for all three styles by winning her ninth World medal. She's won a medal in all nine trips to the Worlds.

"Nine medals - that just speaks for itself," Steiner said. "To be in this fire nine times and win nine medals is pretty amazing. The level of wrestling is improving, no doubt about it, and for her to continue to succeed at this level is very impressive."

Marano (Colorado Springs, Colo./New York AC) ties heavyweight freestyle legend Bruce Baumgartner with the most World medals won by a U.S. wrestler with nine.

"I didn't know that," Marano said of the record. "But he was pretty good, so it's definitely a good accomplishment. It's a an honor to accomplish something like that. It's not the medal I wanted, but it's still a medal and that's good."

Marano tried a number of arm throws but was unable to generate much offense against the defending champion in the finals.

"I just didn't wrestle very well," Marano said. "I don't know, I didn't wrestle very well a month ago and got pinned by her. I just didn't get anything going. There is definitely room for improvement and I'm going to keep working hard for next year."

Zlateva beat Marano a month ago in the finals of a tournament in Poland.

"I noticed right away that Kristie wasn't moving forward," Steiner said. "She was letting her opponent dictate the pace a little bit and moving backwards. We weren't working hard enough with our hands and getting our tie. That's a credit to Stanka, she's definitely improved a ton and she's proven two years in a row she's the best in the World."

Downing (Colorado Springs, Colo./Sunkist Kids) won her second career World bronze medal. Her first medal came two years ago.

"It's disappointing because I came here for gold, but bronze is probably better than silver because you get that chance to rectify your situation," Downing said. "I feel pretty good. I feel like I've improved my wrestling overall. I'm definitely better than last year and even 2005. I definitely have some work to do on specific opponents."

Trying to come back was not an easy task for Downing.

"Some of the hardest wrestling that you ever have to do is in the wrestlebacks," Downing said. "You still have a job to do. You're crushed on the inside, but you still have to get yourself ready to go like you're going for gold still."

McMann (Gaffney, S.C./Sunkist Kids) now has won three World medals, a silver and two bronze.

McMann drew Japan's Kaori Icho in the first round and lost in two straight periods to fall into the wrestlebacks. But she rebounded to win three straight matches for bronze. She capped the run by downing Golliot L LeGrand of France 2-1, 4-1 in the match for the bronze.

"It was really difficult for me to come back," McMann said. "To be perfectly honest, the first thing I think of when I know I am not getting gold is, 'OK, I'm ready to go home.' But I knew that I had a job to do and I completely reset my focus instantly because I had to qualify my weight class (for the Olympics). Apart from my personal goals, I have some other goals to make no matter what I was feeling like and my team needed the points."

What does McMann need to do better against Icho, who beat McMann in the 2003 World and 2004 Olympic finals?

"It's positioning errors," McMann said. "I was moving her and I was doing the things we worked on, and she kept getting her head in the way of my shot. You can't get to the legs if someone's head is in the way. I need to basically put two and three things together. I've been working on that, but it's not where it needs to be obviously. I need to have my second and third shots be the ones that take her down. I need to come more into her body, and not try to outslick her because she's pretty fast.